Colors Left in the Sky
by EIND
Summary: Another Geass-user appears on the Ashford Academy campus. His appearance at this critical time could mean the end of Lelouch, yet, like Rolo, could this be another double edged sword? The story of how the Geass has ripped apart yet another human life.
1. Chapter 1

Last period was always hardest for Lelouch. By this time of the day, the little energy he had procured through lunch had been eaten away. Musty sunlight warmed the classrooms and thickened the air until it felt like a blanket. To Lelouch's sleep-deprived body, it was an irresistible invitation to a nap.

English was the easiest period to get away with it, as well. The teacher was an old man, less than a decade away from his retirement. To him, students were merely mannequins for whom he preached English. He spent, with surprising consistency, the entire time writing notes on the board for students to copy, only glancing at his class once in the beginning, and again at the end. And even if he had decided to check the attention of his pupils, Lelouch had long since learned the exact position in which to sleep to appear to be taking notes. A hand on his forehead blocked his closed eyes from the teacher, and supported his head. The other held a pen posed over a notebook. He was only ever caught if he neglected to wake up by the end of class.

Normally, Lelouch's naps were light sleep—they served more for consolation than actual rest. Today, however, he could hardly keep his head up. He had spent all of last night negotiating with Australian diplomats for funding for the Black Nights. The Australians were understandably skeptic, but that did nothing to ease his distaste at having to stay awake until four in the morning. And with only three hours of sleep, Lelouch was drifting to a deep sleep to the words of the Emperor's speech to the Elevens after successfully seizing Japan. His angry dreams were of revenge.

The class was silent, save for the teacher's voice. More faces were turned outdoors, to the bright sunshine, than the teacher's face. Halfway through class, there was a dull thud as Lelouch's elbow slipped and his head crashed onto the desk. The entire class turned to stare, except the teacher. Lelouch remained asleep, the thud translating to whiplash from an explosion in his dream state. Even in an unconscious state, Lelouch began to rewrite his battle plans.

Class ended and the students rushed out, presumably to their dorms to dump their stuff and head out for the weekend. Lelouch wasn't particularly popular in this class—the rivalry between his grades and those of the collective class had taken a particularly nasty turn on the last in-class essay—so no one had bothered to wake him up. The teacher disappeared into a back room. Lelouch was left alone, still asleep.

The hallways quieted. In Lelouch's dream, the battle had ended, and both sides were beginning to treat their wounded. The victor wasn't clear, and both sides had survived the battle largely intact. Lelouch looked down at the battlefield, Zero's cloak flapping loudly in the wind. He shouldn't be standing on this cliff—it was too open to snipers and ambushes, but if a king did not move…

There was a tap on his shoulder.

"Lelouch…"

Lelouch spun around. That voice wasn't Kallen's, or C.C.'s. Who knew who he was…?

Lelouch woke up, spinning around. Surprised eyes met his, and the hand on his shoulder was hastily withdrawn, but not without first brushing against his neck…

Lelouch's vision flashed, streaks of light flying past his eyes, blanketing away the real world with an explosion of brightness. The light intensified until he could see nothing else. Gradually, figures began to appear, growing slowly darker. He was watching, Lelouch realized, his memories pass by like a black and white film.

His life was exploding by, images passing by faster than his eyes could absorb. Faces of family and friends, terrain of battles, strategies and tactics, real or imagined, all blended together until it all disappeared into a single shade of grey. And from it, one figure, in color, appeared. It was covering an eye. Lelouch watched as it pulled away its hand.

Geass. Your mind is mine.

Lelouch tried to focus on the figure's face. Grayish hair came into focus, and indigo eyes. The face was uncannily familiar. The figure closed its eyes. The brightness faded. Lelouch opened his eyes.

He was on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. His chair had fallen over, and it seemed he had fallen with it. But he could not recall when. Lelouch pulled himself up. Someone ran up the stairs, speeding past him. Lelouch caught only a glimpse of grayish hair.

The Geass user!

It cost Lelouch tantalizing moments to stand up and disentangle himself from the chair. Already whoever had cast a Geass on him was out the door. Lelouch dashed into the hallways. Chattering students filled the hall in the usual after school rush. Though he stood there for a full minute, Lelouch could not find the him.

It was no matter, Lelouch decided, as he turned to back into the classroom to pick up his things. Whoever it was had been wearing a school uniform. They couldn't avoid him for long.

"Mr. Lamperouge, are you alright?"

The grizzled English teacher had emerged from his office, presumably once he had heard the crash. Lelouch picked up the chair.

"Yes, sir. Fine. I merely knocked over my chair. But who was that that just ran off?"

"I would assume that it's Alexis Desmarais. He's a new student. I asked to see him after school, but as you said, he seems to have run off. If you see him, please send him back."

"Yes, sir. I will. Thank you."

Lelouch gathered his notebooks under his arm. The last Geass-user who had come to his school had led him uncomfortably close to his end. Mao had been a near-fatal demonstration of the power of Geass. Lelouch's defeat at the hands of his father and Suzaku was further motivation to seize the first move, if anymore was needed. However, judging by the fact that this new threat had chosen to run instead of confront him implied that he had some more time before he was challenged—if he would be. Though some more time could be anywhere from a few months to this afternoon. Regardless, he needed to find out who this new Geass-user was, and what exactly they had done to him.

Reason why I decided to write this: I've finished Code Geass and feel a desperate want for more. The solution: Fanfiction! What else?

So this should be a filler-arc type of story, except with words, and the anime's already finished, so it isn't going to be so annoying. But filler arc implies: a) a plot, b) knightmares, and c) Lelouch awesomeness! The problem with c, however, is I'm not too sure what Lelouch awesomeness quite is. I need to re-watch the anime (The manga couldn't hold my interest, I'm sorry to say. They're too short.) But I won't really be able to find the time until the summer, so until then, please review, and tell me what Lelouch awesomeness is constituted of. Also, having some Out of Character difficulties with Lelouch, since I haven't picked up on his character too well. I'm also accepting plot suggestions, since I haven't got it worked out completely.

But, er, yeah. So read and review. I'll be trying my best to imitate Lelouch's intellect and keeping this fanfic to read more like a novel than a fangirl drabble. I'm planning another story, which this will be the back story of. But that won't be written for a while, so enjoy this instead.


	2. Chapter 2

"How much longer will the negotiations last?"

"At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they went on for another three weeks. The Eunuchs like to argue as much as they like to eat."

Lelouch rubbed his eyes and glanced at the clock on his desk. Half past two, already? He had promised himself to get to bed by a reasonable time. He leaned back against the wall. He needed to be awake tomorrow. He could feel the phone slipping between his fingers. He was simply too tired.

"Try to speed them up, if possible. We need their support if we're going to make it through this next phase."

"Alright. Take care of yourself."

"Wait, C.C."

"What is it, Lelouch?'

Lelouch closed his eyes. "It seems there's another Geass user at school. Do you know of them?" He thought back to what he had seen of him. He still couldn't think of where he had seen him before. As a new student, it was possible that he had seen him in the halls, yet that didn't feel quite right.

"If it was someone I had given the Geass to, I would have known of them earlier. This must be one of V.V.'s."

"A spy?"

"Most likely. Be careful. Don't let them catch you by surprise."

C.C. closed the line. Lelouch sighed and slumped farther down the wall. What a long day. He usually used this time to prepare for the next day, be it for Zero or Lelouch Lamperouge. But today, when it seemed crucial, he could hardly keep his eyes open. What had happened today? Normally, he could easily stay awake past five or six before feeling the need for any coffee or such things. It was, he decided, the stress. Rolo, his 'brother', could decide or discover that Lelouch didn't really love him, and betray him to Villetta Nu, who was watching his every movement on camera, and only ever gave him any rest when he left the school grounds, trailed by sunglassed tails. Not to mention the momentous amount of effort Zero had to put in to convince the various nations of the Black Knight's legitimacy after his defeat the year before. And, of course, Suzaku had come back to the school. It took all his will power not to choke his old friend in his sleep.

It seemed, the best thing to do was sleep, and hope he did not dream of warfare yet again.

* * *

He ran a hand through his hair, brushing the grey strands away from his face. A Geass was staring back at him from the reflection in the mirror where should have been his other eye.

"Go away. Please, go away," he whispered, shutting his eyes.

Eyes still closed, he wandered into his bed. Only when he had pulled the sheets almost all the way over his face, did he open them. There was still that glimmer of red at the fringes of his vision. The Geass was still there.

"What's happening to me?" he murmured.

* * *

Lelouch was late, or shortly going to be. He hadn't been aware of oversleeping, yet here he was, trailing after Rolo as the two of them rushed through the school's front entrance.

"Rolo, wait up!"

Rolo paused by the staircase. "Sorry, brother, but the English department's all the way on the other side of the school. I'll see you later."

Lelouch reached the staircase just as he left, distastefully out of breath.

I really should do something about this, he thought as he began to make his way up the stairs to physics. To his surprise, there still seemed to be a good deal of students in the halls. Maybe he wasn't so late after all.

"Good morning, Lelouch!"

Shirley appeared by his side.

"Oh. Good morning, Shirley. Why are there so many people in the halls? Isn't class about to start—?"

"Never mind that. Have you seen the new student?"

There was a mentally audible click as Lelouch's mind began snapping the pieces of the puzzle together. His face, however, showed no sign of this.

"Alexis Desmarais, was it?"

"Yep! They're in our year. I think Rivalz said they were in your History class."

"They? There's more than one of them?" An accomplice?

"No, there's just one. It's just that…"

Shirley fell silent. Lelouch watched her, masking his impatience.

"Well, no one's really sure if they're a guy or a girl," Shirley finally said. She smiled sheepishly. Lelouch frowned.

"How can you not know? Isn't he wearing a uniform?"

"But they…here they come. You can ask them yourself."

Shirley disappeared into a nearby classroom. Lelouch glanced down the hall. A group of students walked, talking amongst themselves. The majority of them were girls, with a single boy standing at the center, clearly the center of attention. His hair blue-grey hair was cut too long for school regulations, splayed messily across his face, concealing his eyes. He spoke in an airy voice that seemed too high for his figure and demeanor.

The girls began to peel away from the group, folding themselves into their respective classrooms, each with a spookily similar wave goodbye. Each time, Alexis would smile cheerfully, his eyes curved into half moons. By the time that Alexis reached Lelouch, only a single girl remained, dragging the new student by the sleeve to their next class. As they passed, Alexis glanced his way. A streak of red flashed where his eye should be. Lelouch stepped backward, shutting his eyes, but there was no noticeable attack.

A classroom door shut, and the noise of their footsteps died away. Lelouch was alone in the hallway. Alexis and his companion had disappeared into a classroom. Lelouch sighed, walking slowly towards his own. For all the morning's hustle, he had only managed to make himself late.

My apologies, haha. I decided to forget about this somewhere along the way. Well, you know how it is, right? (Right? _Right!?_) But I reread over this stuff, and found I didn't hate it. But I've also reread my stuff, and realized I forgot all the stuff I had planned. Bits and pieces are coming back to me, but it seems like I didn't have much to start. But I do remember the events of the next chapter, or two, so we'll see what happens from there.

I'm going to assume that the Britannians are still doing that 'they' as an ambiguous pronoun like we do. And does Shirley still call Lelouch 'Lulu' in R2? I don't remember. If it's bugging you guys, and you give me the answer, I'll change it.

So next chapter is when the action starts. As well as character development and all that good stuff. Seeya soon. Unless I forget about this again. (Hint: If you review, I won't! If you bother me about it (I really don't mind!) I won't. Even if it's just to correct me on my spelling of characters' names, or if a certain aspect bothers you, or if you have requests on ridiculous club activities or other examples of hilarity, I won't. And best friends come from constructively critical reviews.)

P.S: Oh! And plot suggestions (PM me! OTL)! And betas! If I get a beta, then I will never forget, ever again! Even if it's just as a Code Geass fact checker (If you hadn't guessed, my memory is _awful_) or to make sure that my sentences make sense.


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